Protocols’ Failure To Damage US-Turkish Ties, Says Analyst

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—If the Turkish Armenian Protocols fall apart, it will have a “serious adverse effect on US-Turkish relations,” according to a renowned U.S. scholar who was actively involved in the Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC).

In an interview with RFE/RL on Thursday, David Phillips stressed that the administration of President Barack Obama understands that stronger U.S. pressure on turkey is essential for salvaging the fence-mending agreements between Armenia and Turkey.

Phillips also criticized Ankara’s linkage between the implementation of those agreements and a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. He dismissed Turkish claims that a recent ruling by the Armenian Constitutional Court ran counter to key provisions of the Turkish-Armenian “protocols” signed in October.

Phillips, who coordinated the work of the U.S.-sponsored TARC in 2001-2004, further said that Armenia should not rush to walk away from the deal. But he stressed that its ratification by the Turkish parliament cannot be “an open-ended process.”

“If these protocols fall apart and there is a diplomatic train wreck, it will have a serious adverse effect on U.S.-Turkish relations,” he said. “And this comes at a time when the U.S. is seeking Turkey’s cooperation on Iran, when Turkey is playing an increasingly important role in Afghanistan and during the wrap-up to redeployment from Iraq.

“The Obama administration knows full well that these protocols should go forward because it is in the interests of Turkey and Armenia. It is also in America’s interests to keep the process moving forward so that U.S.-Turkish cooperation is in effect.”

Analysts believe Washington will step up pressure on Ankara ahead of the April 24 annual commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. Obama avoided properly characterizing the annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians as Genocide in his April 24 statement in 2009, implicitly citing the need not to undermine the ongoing Turkish-Armenian rapprochement.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg discussed the issue with President Serzh Sarkisian and Foreign Minisiter Edward Nalbandian during a one-day visit to Yerevan on Thursday.

Phillips, who currently runs a conflict resolution program at the American University in Washington, declined to speculate on just how strong that pressure will be. “But I do believe that unless the Obama administration presses the Turks at the highest level, the likelihood of the protocols being ratified in Ankara will decrease,” he said.

Phillips described Steinberg’s visit as a “a clear indication that the Obama administration understands the importance of this matter and the need to raise the profile of its involvement.” “And its efforts to use its leverage should intensify in the near future,” he said. “The U.S. needs to be actively engaged in this process if it is going to work.”

U.S. officials have already made clear that they disagree with Ankara’s highly negative reaction to the Armenian court ruling. While upholding the legality of the protocols, the Constitutional Court ruled last month that they cannot stop Yerevan seeking a broader international recognition of the Armenian genocide.

Turkish leaders claim that the court thereby prejudged the findings of a Turkish-Armenian “subcommission” of history experts which the two governments have agreed to set up. The Armenian side insists, however, that the panel would not be tasked with examining the history of the Genocide. It says the Turks are deliberately exploiting the ruling to justify their reluctance to ratify the protocols.

“There is nothing in the [relevant protocol] annex that says that the subcommission is going to be considering the veracity of the Armenian genocide,” agreed Phillips. “If those questions are being raised, they are being raised as a way of deflecting the focus of discussions and creating conditions whereby Armenia is blamed for any breakdown of the process.”

“If the Turks ever thought that signing the protocols would bring an end to international recognition efforts, they were wrong,” he said. “They should have known that from the beginning and I’m quite sure that they do know that.”

Commenting on Turkish leaders’ repeated statements making protocol ratification conditional on the signing of a Karabakh agreement acceptable to Azerbaijan, Phillips said, “The protocols are very clear. There is no mention in the protocols themselves or in any of the annexes about Nagorno-Karabakh.”

President Serzh Sarkisian has publicly threatened to annul the agreements unless Ankara drops the Karabakh linkage “within a reasonable time frame.” Some of his aides have spoken of late March as an unofficial deadline for their unconditional implementation.

In Phillips’s view, walking away from the deal at this juncture would be a “mistake.” But he acknowledged that the Armenian government cannot wait for Turkish ratification for much longer.

“I know that for domestic political reasons, this can’t be an open-ended process, and April 24, as the anniversary of the Armenian genocide, has been put forward as a deadline,” he said. “Whether or not April 24 is a deadline is something for the Armenian government to decide. But there clearly needs to be an end point.”

In the meantime, suggested Phillips, Sarkisian should formally submit the protocols to Armenia’s parliament “without necessarily calling for a vote.” “Then the onus of responsibility for a potential diplomatic breakdown would rest with Ankara,” he reasoned.

Phillips spoke to RFE/RL in Yerevan where he arrived earlier on Thursday to present the newly published Armenian translation of his 2005 book, “Unsilencing the Past,” that gives a detailed account of TARC’s largely confidential activities. The panel of Turkish and Armenian retired diplomats and prominent public figures was set up in 2001 at the U.S. State Department’s initiative and with the tacit approval of the authorities in Ankara and Yerevan.

TARC repeatedly called for the unconditional establishment of diplomatic relations between the two states and opening of their border before being disbanded in 2004. It is also infamous for commissioning a study on the Genocide from the New York-based International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ). In a report released in February 2003, ICTJ concluded that the Armenian Genocide “include all of the elements of the crime of genocide” as defined by a 1948 United Nations convention.

But the report also said, to the dismay of Armenia and its worldwide Diaspora, that the Armenians cannot use the convention for demanding material or other compensation from Turkey. Former U.S. President George W. Bush repeatedly cited the ICTJ study in his April 24 statements.

Phillips hailed the study as a potential blueprint for Turkish-Armenian reconciliation. “The full benefit of that finding has yet to be fully understood and materialized,” he said.

Phillips also credited TARC with laying the groundwork for the unprecedented thaw in Turkish-Armenian relations that began shortly after Sarkisian took office in April 2008. “The rapprochement that’s underway today would never have occurred in this time frame if TARC hadn’t existed,” he said. “All of TARC’s recommendations are now being put into effect.”

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11 Comments

So, actually there are four Phillips in the state department.
From what is said, we learn once more that since July 2001 the Process was launched, and the major figures were elected, and the March 1st in Yerevan was orchestrated to make all “electees” vulnerable. Why Phillip came forward now? Because this Big Project is about to fail?
Phillip, look at this failure as a chance:
An historical excursion (from Wikipedia). Philip IV (Le Bel), in contrast to his pleasing looks, was a cold and secretive man who had strong wishes for France to be the head of the empire. It was when Philip so devalued the French currency that he was forced to seek refuge from his people in a Templar shelter. Here in the Paris temple, Philip became aware, perhaps for the first time of the true wealth of the Knights Templar. It was here in the protecting arms of the order that he first manifested the idea of stealing their vast wealth for his political agenda.On Friday the 13th of October 1307 (the real reason the day carries bad luck) all the Tampliers in France were arrested on a variety of charges and accusations. The trials of the Tampliers lasted from that date through until March 19th, 1314 when Jacques de Molay the last (known) Grand Master of the order was burned at the stake. So the story goes, as he burned in agony, he invited both Philip and Clement to join him within a year. You know the rest.

WE ALL KNOW THAT MR. PRESIDENT WON AS RESULT OF
CHANGE, AFTER ONE YEAR STILL MR PRESIDENT FALLOW
THE SAME POLICY OF MR.BUSH SPECIALLY RECONIZATION
OF ARMENIANS 1.5 MILLION GENOCIDE PERFORMED BY TURKISH.
ALL WE ASKING AS ARMENIAN-AMERICAN JUST JUSTICE NO MORE

David Phillips, stay away from asking Obama to further push our Sarkissian to sign the protocols. The protocols are doomed and derailed and better that they stay doomed. Turkey does not wish it anyhow, and it’s good that way. Let it go and do not meddle in or Obama into further reconciliations with Turkey again!!!!!

So what if there is an adverse effect in US-Turkish relationships? Turkey was not an ally-friend of
anyone, and if she pretends to be friends of anyone it is merely a fake picture.
Put Genocidal Turkey on trial..

Hye, Tarc was an abomination forced upon Armenians – an obvious insult to the intelligence of the Armenians who recognized it for what it was! Tarc shall not take any credit for anything!
The Turkish protocols, again, an attempt to crush the fledgling nation of Armenia by Turks and the so-called ‘friends’ of the Turks.
Unbelieveable! that any leaderships/nations will share with such a Turkey the same convoluted Ottoman thinking against the Armenians – in their denials, and more. Unbelieveable!
Manooshag

Hillary Clinton has a lot to learn from running a failed-US State Department. Continuing to implement failed policies of the past will sink the Department into a greater State of failure to achieve its objectives.

What are the goals of the US State Department?
– Access route to the world’s largest and most strategic gas & oil reserves in Central Asia (Turkmenistan & Kazakhstan)

Armenia is the only viable energy route for access and control of central Asian gas & oil fields.

Turkey is a corridor with a dead end (closed borders with Armenia); and Azerbaijan can not export to the West (closed border with Armenia).

No genocide recognition; no reparation; no restitution; no discussion on the fate of land –> No access to Central Asian gas & oil.

Why not via Georgia?; it is deemed unstable and unreliable with continuous Russian destabilization efforts. No access via Iran; no access via Pakistan; and naturally no access via the Russian Federation. That leaves Armenia.

Why is it so important to the West? Because, it provides an end to Russian dominance (leverage and influence) of gas supplies to Europe. Russia would be wakened and later dismembered into independent republics (dagestan, tataristan, chechnya, etc..). Prevent China and India from developing too fast by controlling the energy reserves that China is competing with. the West.

So Hillary, start thinking with a fresh and just approach; genocide recognition; accountability for the crimes of Genocide by Turkey; reparations; and restitution.

Turkey is a vital interest to the United States and the EU for its geopolitical reason.Rest assured there won’t be any Recognition of Armenian Genocide this coming April or the next fifty Aprils and beyond,so long the Russians are being concieved as a threat to both the United States and the EU.